Haute or Not???

I love award shows! Three times a year (The Emmys, The Golden Globes and The Academy Awards) I sit down with friends and my family to watch and dish. We get takeout, buy tons of fattening snacks and cuddle up on the couch for three hours of “omg did you see what she was wearing, or he gets more gorgeous every year!” Every show has a few dresses that stand out in everyone’s mind for a long long time. Those dresses are the ones that are copied over and over and the actresses are remembered for their “hits” in fashion even if they don’t go home with a statue. Who can forget Angelina Jolie’s rocking right leg baring Versace dress last year,Gwyneth Paltrow‘s pink Ralph Lauren ballerina dress at the 1999 Oscars,Olivia Wilde‘s dreamy Marchesa gown at the 2011 globes or Rihanna’s Armani dress at last years Grammys? Everyone has their own reason for watching these shows-women mostly for the fashion (you have to admit it’s always reassuring to see one of the stars at a red carpet affair looking like a disaster.) Remember Bjork’s swan dress? It makes us feel so much better about our own fashion mistakes and helps us to realize that stars really are human after all. For me it starts with the red carpet where nowadays we are told right away who designed the dress, what shoes they are wearing and of course all about the jewels. It used to be that the day after awards shows the media were scrambling to reach stars publicists to find out which designers they were wearing. If I miss the red carpet I may as well miss the show.

Here were the dresses that I couldn’t take my eyes off of this year:

Two of the dresses that got the least airtime were two of my absolute favorites that night:

Julianne Hough in Monique Lhullier was breathtaking. It had the lightness and airy qualities mixed in with the sparkle and flair that I believe a red carpet gown should be. It reminded me so much of Olivia Wilde’s Marchesa dress that I mentioned above (of which I carry a picture of on my phone) in case I ever have an occasion to wear a ball gown I know what I want. (I warned you when I started this blog that I was fashion obsessed!)

Alicia Vikander was a dream in Chanel. Every girl dreams of wearing a Chanel gown at some point in their life and to me this dress is the reason why. It was young, fresh and looked elegant, classy, modest, dreamy and so age appropriate. The same can be said ofAnne Hathaway‘s Chanel dress that night. Some critics found it to be too simple, but Anne is a simple girl and sometimes simple can be perfect (especially if it’s Chanel!) As much as I like Anne’s I still absolutely love Alicia’s more.

Prada, Prada, Prada. For years before my son’s bar mitzvah I used to dream of having a Chanel suit for the day. That’s what the bar mitzvah mom should wear I thought and I would have it forever and 30 years from now (hoping it still fit) I would say ” this was my first chanel suit, I got it for Alex’s bar mitzvah.” But it was Prada I went with in the end. And after seeing the simplicity and elegance that Miuccia Prada puts into her dresses I knew that was what I wanted. Her dresses don’t scream designer and like everything else I own Prada I put it on and it fit like a glove. That is why I absolutely adored Kathryn Bigelow‘s Prada gown.

Short sleeves are hard to wear, it’s either sleeveless, cap sleeves or long sleeves you rarely see short sleeve gowns. But these were perfect and the jewelled top was enough to make the gown red carpet worthy.

KateHudson never fails to disappoint me or anyone else. Her dress by Alexander McQueen had to be one of my all time favorites from the Golden Globes.The long-sleeves and the jaw dropping gold accents on her neck and waist were simply breath taking. You couldn’t take your eyes off of her. The plunging neckline was so sexy and her hair which was relaxed and flowing complimented the whole outfit perfectly. When asked why this dress Kate answered “I decided to go with comfort.” Can you imagine all this and comfortable too? What I love most about this dress is that anyone can wear it. The keyhole cut can be made much much smaller so not to expose someone’s entire chest and with the long sleeves and length it’s the perfect modest dress!

Unfortunately there were a lot more disappointments for me this year than there were wows. Taylor Swift’s Donna Karan dress was a big one for me.

I felt such a young, skinny girl who loves fashion looked old and dowdy. (She didn’t smile much that night either.) The color did not suit her one bit (it even clashed with the red carpet) and the style was unbecoming from the waist down. I am not a fan of hers but I felt a light airy, tulle or gold dress would have been much more suited to her body type and complexion.

Kerry Washington’s Miu Miu was another one. I love Miu Miu but this gown should have either been short or long. Short would have been va va voom sexy or it should have been floor length without the short underlay. She also could have worn a drop dead gorgeous shoe. When you see the whole shoe that’s the opportunity to wear a rocking pair of Loboutins. The eye gets confused looking at her and everytime I see a picture I think there is just something about this dress that I don’t like!

Amanda Seyfreid’s Givenchy Haute Couture just seemed to be missing something when I looked at it.

It could have been that her hairstyle took away from the top which was confusing the eye or the lace inlay on the sides. I also didn’t get the point of the tie clip at top, unless this was supposed to look like a tuxedo top. I am not sure but it just didn’t scream wow to me. Also she had an opportunity for fabulous jewellery on her arms and fingers and I just didn’t see any!

Nicole Kidman’s Alexander McQueen was another odd one for me.

She has beautiful taste, is extremely tall, elegant and classy and can carry a gown like no other. But to me this dress just seemed like she was trying too hard.The skirt fits her magnificently but what is that middle is it sheer or is that also an overaly and the top part is just not appealing, I don’t even know what that is on top. Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen line is beyond what words can describe (remember Princess Kate’s wedding dress?) but not this one in my opinion.

Someone please tell me what Sienna Miller was thinking with this Erdem dress?

Sienna Miller is by far one of the sexiest women on earth. She exudes sex appeal and is a natural beauty. If you don’t believe me google her and I challenge you to find a bad picture of her. This dress along with the pulled back hair looks nothing like the movie star she really is.

Jennifer Lopez has an incredible body. As a person who actually gave birth to twins and ran a triathalon a few months later she deserves to show off. But this semi-sheer gown by Zuhair Murad just did not give her the respect she deserves.

It could just be me (I didn’t like Kerry Washington’s either maybe its the lace overlays that don’t appeal to me) but I have seen some drop dead photos of J.Lo and this isn’t one of them. (BTW for some of those pictures look at Harper Baazar’s Feb 2013 issue which she is on the cover.)

Zac Posen has always been one of my favorite designers but Lena Dunham’s dress was a huge disappointment. I don’t fault her at all as I believe this was her first Golden Globes. But I am totally suprised that Zac Posen designed this because to me it was ill fitting at the top, did NOT go at all with her tattoos or her body shape and the color was simply boring, tired and too old for her. My initial thought was that this was a bridesmaid dress from someone’s wedding that she wore for sentimental reasons.

Lastly, Adele’s Burberry dress was just another huge let down. After not seeing her for almost a year I expected more.I know she’s a new mom and I remember how hard it is to find a dress that makes you feel good after being pregnant for 9 months but that dress was just not worthy of someone with a voice like hers. She is a star and she should shine, the top jewelled neckline was stunning but the waist and rest of the gown were nothing special. When you are Adele and designers are throwing themselves at you begging to make a haute couture dress just for you-you can definately do better then another black dress that was hard to remember.

As you can see I have a lot of opinions on Golden Globe Fashion. Tomorrow I am going to show you the top trends in dresses from the night with more drop dead pictures. I hope you enjoyed and will let me know which dresses you thought were haute or not!